KEAR (AM)

KEAR
City	San Francisco, California
Broadcast area	San Francisco Bay Area
Branding	Family Radio 610
Slogan	The Sound of the New Life
Frequency	610 (kHz)
First air date	September 24, 1924
Format	Christian radio
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Facility ID	1082
Former callsigns	KFRC (1924-2005)
Affiliations	Family Radio
Owner	Family Radio (Family Stations, Inc.)
Sister stations	KEBR
Website	familyradio.com

KEAR (610 kHz), is a non-commercial traditional Christian radio station in San Francisco, California. KEAR is the flagship station of Family Radio, and its transmitter is located in Berkeley, California and shares with KVTO. Until 2005, KEAR was broadcasting on 106.9 MHz FM.

KEAR's programming is also broadcast on KEBR in Sacramento, California, whose signal is transmitted from radio repeaters for local markets across California, such as 101.5 MHz (K268AH) in Palm Springs and 90.9 MHz (K217BJ) in Banning.

History

610 AM KFRC

For more details on this topic, see KFRC (defunct).

The frequency of 610 kHz had been home to the original KFRC for over eight decades, from September 24, 1924 until April 29, 2005. In the 1960s and 1970s, KFRC was a legendary Top 40 powerhouse in San Francisco, but on August 11, 1986, KFRC had flipped to an Adult Standards format. On August 12, 1993, it began simulcasting its sister station KFRC-FM's Oldies format.

KEAR call letters

The call letters KEAR were originally assigned to an AM station at 1550 kHz (now KZDG) in 1952. Before that, since 1947, the radio station at this frequency (1550 kHz) had been called KSMO. From 1947 to 1956, KSMO and KEAR had broadcast as San Francisco's only AM classical music station. They billed themselves as the "good music" station. When KEAR stopped broadcasting classical music in 1956, this forced many San Francisco classical music lovers to become early adopters and purchase the then recently introduced FM radios so they could listen to classical music broadcasts on KDFC. In 1956, the KEAR call letters were moved to 97.3 FM. Family Stations Inc. bought the station in 1959, and aired its first Family Radio broadcast on KEAR on February 4 of that year.

In September 1978, Family Stations Inc. sold its station at 97.3 to CBS (who still owns it today as KLLC), and acquired KMPX (106.9 FM) from National Science Network, Inc. At this time, the KEAR call letters and Family Radio programming were transferred to the new frequency, where it broadcast for 27 years.

KEAR moves to 610 AM

In 2005, Family Stations acquired KFRC's AM frequency from Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio). Viacom, the parent company of Infinity Broadcasting, was in the process of acquiring television station KOVR in Stockton, California, and needed to sell the AM station to meet Federal Communications Commission ownership limitations. On April 29, 2005, 610 AM began simulcasting Family Radio programming. Shortly thereafter, Family Stations sold its 106.9 FM frequency to Infinity Broadcasting.

The Oakland Athletics baseball team, which had a contract with KFRC to carry its games, continued to broadcast on 610 AM through the end of the team's 2005 season. On October 17, 2005, after the season ended, the KEAR call letters were transferred to the AM station and 106.9 became KIFR, later to become, ironically, KFRC-FM.

Coincidentally, all three of the frequencies which formerly had the KEAR call letters are now assigned to CBS Radio.

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for KEAR

Radio-Locator Information on KEAR

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KEAR

Family Radio

AM Radio Stations	KARR^† KEAR KECR KFRN KKAA KQKD KYFR WCTF WCUE WFME WFSI WKDN

FM Radio Stations	KDFR KEBR KEFR KFNO KFRB KFRD KFRJ KFRP KFRS KFRW KFRY KHAP KJVH KPFR KPHF KPRA KQFE KTXB KUFR KXFR KYOR WBFR WBMD WEFR WFBF WFCH WFME-FM WFRC WFRH WFRJ WFRP WFRS WJCH WJFR WKDN-FM WMFL WMWK WOFR WOTL WUFR WWFR WYTN

Television stations	KZTN-LD WNYJ-TV

† Affiliate; not licensed to Family Stations, Inc.

Radio stations in the San Francisco, California market

By AM frequency	560 610 680¹ 740 810¹ 860 910 960 1010 1050 1100 1170 1190 1220 1260 1310 1370 1400 1430 1450 1500 1510 1550 1590 1610 1640

By FM frequency	87.7² 87.9 88.1 88.1 88.5 89.1 89.3 89.3 89.3 89.3 89.3 89.5 89.7 89.9 90.1 90.3 90.5 90.5 90.7 91.1 91.5 91.7 92.3 92.7 93.3 93.7 94.1 94.5 94.9 95.3 95.7 96.1 96.5 97.3 97.7 98.1 98.5 98.9 99.7 100.3 100.7 101.3 102.1 102.9 103.3 103.7 104.5 104.9 105.3 105.7 106.1 106.5 106.9 107.3 107.7

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.400 162.450 162.500 162.550

By callsign	KALW KALX KBAY KBLX-FM KBRG KCBS KCEA KCRH KCSM KDIA KDOW KDX54 KDYA KEAR KEC49 KECG KEST KEZR KFAX KFFG KFJC KFOG KFRC-FM KGMZ KGO KHB49 KIOI KIQI KISQ KITS KKSF KKUP KLIV KLLC KLOK KLVS KMEL KMKY KMTG KMVQ-FM (HD3) KNBR KNEW KOIT KOSC KOSF KPDO KPFA KPFB KPOO KQED-FM KRBQ KREV KRSA KRTY KRZZ KSAN KSCU KSFB KSFH KSFN KSFO KSJO KSJS KSJX KSOL KSQQ KSRH KTCT KTRB KUFX KVTO KVVF KVVN KVVZ KWMR KXSC KXZM KYLD KZDG KZSF KZSU WWF64

Defunct	KABL KABL-FM KFRC KYA KJAZ KKHI KMPX KOME KSAN (defunct) KUSF (defunct)

Satellite radio local traffic/weather XM Channel 221 Sirius Channel 156

¹ = Clear-channel stations with extended nighttime coverage. ² Audio for TV channel 6 (KBKF-LP/Ind/K-LOVE)

California radio markets Bakersfield Chico Fresno Los Angeles Merced Modesto Oxnard–Ventura Palm Springs Redding Riverside/San Bernardino Sacramento San Diego San Francisco/Oakland San Jose San Luis Obispo Santa Barbara Santa Cruz/Salinas/Monterey Santa Maria-Lompoc Santa Rosa Stockton Victor Valley Visalia-Tulare-Hanford Other California radio regions Barstow Bishop Crescent City Diablo Valley High Desert/Eastern Sierra Eureka Fort Bragg–Ukiah Gilroy/Hollister Imperial Valley Marysville/Yuba City Needles Red Bluff Susanville/Sierra Nevada Tri-Valley Yreka Mass media in the San Francisco Bay Area: Radio stations

Coordinates: 37°50′58″N 122°17′44″W / 37.84944°N 122.29556°W / 37.84944; -122.29556

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